Dishwasher Repair in Los Angeles and Orange County

Water standing in the bottom

This is the call we get most, and it is worth half an hour of your time before it becomes ours, because a good share of these are not the machine at all.

Start under the sink. If the dishwasher drains into a garbage disposer, run the disposer: food packed in it stops the dishwasher. If the disposer was installed after the dishwasher, or the kitchen is new, check that the knockout plug inside its inlet was actually removed - a plug left in place will hold water in the tub from day one and no part will fix it.

Then the filter. Almost every machine built in the last fifteen years has a filter in the floor of the tub that twists out by hand. Under it is the sump, and in the sump we routinely find glass, fruit labels, olive pits and the odd screw. Finally, follow the drain hose behind the cabinet as far as you can see it and straighten any kink.

If the tub still holds water after all three, it is the drain pump, the check valve or a blockage further along the waste line, and the machine has to come out to reach any of them.

Dishes come out dirty or gritty

Poor cleaning is rarely one big fault; it is usually three small things at once. Spray arms that cannot turn because a handle or a tall dish is in their way. Spray holes silted up with limescale, which in Los Angeles water happens faster than the manuals assume. Detergent that has been sitting in a damp cupboard for a year and no longer dissolves.

Lift both arms off - they usually unclip or unscrew by hand - and hold them up to the light. If you cannot see through the holes, that is your answer. Clear them with a pin, not a drill bit, and put the arms back so they spin freely.

What we look at when that is not enough: whether the machine is actually heating the water, whether the circulation pump is making pressure, and whether the diverter is sending water to the upper arm at all. Those three need a technician, and which one it is decides whether the job is worth doing on an older machine.

Water on the floor

A leak deserves urgency that a dirty-dish complaint does not: under a built-in dishwasher, water runs along the floor of the cabinet run and into the subfloor before it ever shows at the kickplate. If you see it, turn off the supply valve under the sink and stop using the machine.

The usual sources, in the order we find them: the door seal, which hardens and flattens with age; the pump seal, which drips only when the machine runs; the fill hose connection; and, on machines with a base flood sensor, an overflow that has already tripped the sensor and stopped the cycle.

One thing worth knowing about the flood protection: on several brands, a float that has lifted once will keep the machine dead until the water under the base is dried out. That is not a fault, it is the machine refusing to add more water to a leak.

Codes, and what they narrow it to

Most machines built since about 2010 report faults, though they do it differently: some show a letter and a number on the display, some count them out in flashes of a light on the front. Either way, the code is worth reading before anyone comes out, because it points at a part rather than a symptom.

We have set out what the makers publish, with the source for each, on the brand pages: the flashing pairs on a Viking, the F and E numbers on a KitchenAid, the F and A faults on a Fisher & Paykel DishDrawer, and the E numbers on a Bosch. If your machine is one of those, start there.

The reset is the same on nearly all of them and is worth doing once: take power away from the machine for half a minute, at the breaker or by unplugging it under the sink, then restore it. A code from a single event clears; a code that names a dead part comes straight back.

When a repair is worth it

We say this before starting work rather than after. A drain pump, a door seal, a fill valve or a heater on a mid-range machine is straightforward and worth doing. A control board on a ten-year-old machine that also has a tired pump and a hardened seal usually is not, and we will say so.

On built-in machines from the premium brands the arithmetic is different: the cabinetry was built around them, replacements have to match the opening and the panel, and a repair that would be marginal on a standard machine is often the sensible choice.

Either way you get the diagnosis and the number before we touch anything, and no work happens until you say so.

Where we come out

Los Angeles and Orange County, in the home: the Westside and the Valley, Pasadena, Burbank and Glendale, and down through Irvine, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. Same or next day in most cases.

When you call, have the make and model to hand - the sticker is on the edge of the door or just inside the tub - and tell us the code if there is one. With those we can usually bring the part on the first visit.